How to make an inserted figure's frame gradually fade?

Question

I have a document, whose background is, needless to say, white. Generally, I am OK with just inserting a figure like this.

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{sample}
\end{figure}

But now, I have a very black-background figure, who makes the regular insertion quite abrupt. Actually, the frame/edge of this figure is not important at all.

So I can afford to make the frame fade gradually to white. How can I do it?

MWE

\documentclass[a4paper]{article}

\usepackage[english]{babel}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{mwe} % just for dummy images

\begin{document}

\begin{figure}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{example-image}
\end{figure}

\end{document}